Margit Norell - the woman behind the serial killer that was not there. She was a psychotherapist at Säters psychiatric clinic and supervised the psychologists and therapists in the 1990s treatment of Thomas Quick. The treatment method, based on object relations theory, focused on the development of repressed childhood memories with psychotherapy. In the case Thomas Quick argued that abuse in childhood meant that he started murdering people in adulthood. Whereupon Quick admitted one murder after another, and finally was convicted of eight murders.

When a western Pennsylvania auto plant is acquired by a Japanese company, brokering auto worker Hunt Stevenson faces the tricky challenge of mediating the assimilation of two clashing corporate cultures. At one end is the Japanese plant manager and the sycophant who is angling for his position. At the other, a number of disgruntled long-time union members struggle with the new exigencies of Japanese quality control.